Editorials

IN one of the mammoth manufacturing plants of the middle West the motive power is supplied by an engine which is a marvel of mechanical skill. So carefully was it planned and built, so delicate are its manifold adjustments, that friction, the bane of all mechanical effort, seems well-nigh eliminated.

" Mortal existence is an enigma. Every day is a mystery.

Some years ago the writer had occasion to speak to a noted literary personage about the growth of Christian Science. The opinion was expressed by the personage in question that the Christian Science movement would follow the usual course of reform movements of all kinds; that it would rise through altruistic motives and fall through selfish desires; in other words, that Christian Science would be no exception to the rule which declares that history repeats itself.

" No man," said the great Teacher, "having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. " Christian Science exacts the same undivided service.

A CONSENSUS of candid thought found among a great majority of Christians today would declare that, so far as convincing experience is concerned, God is the great unknown. The prevailing sense with regard to Him is that of far-removal and of unapproachableness, and if He is addressed at all, it is with mingled feelings of reverence and presumption, of hope and uncertainty, of conscious need and honest doubt.

THERE are no students of the Bible who value its teachings more highly than do Christian Scientists, for they find that the spiritual sense gained in Christian Science enables them to apply these teachings in a wonderfully practical way. It goes without saying that those who are well acquainted with the Scriptures have an advantage at the start, but in every case the spiritual sense must be gained, for an attempt to interpret the inspired word materially grasps only the letter which killeth, when humanity's great need is the spirit which "giveth life.

ONE of the most difficult lessons to be learned in the school of Christian Science is that of patience and confidence in God. The sufferer may have been for months, or even years, under materia medica, may have "suffered many things of many physicians," but when the last remnant of hope in things material is gone and he turns to Christian Science for relief, he chafes at any possible delay.

THE thirteenth chapter of Luke's gospel presents in vivid terms certain scenes in the great drama of human redemption which show the determination of mortal mind to resist every advancing step of spiritual Truth. In his parables Jesus was unsparing in his condemnation of the error which claimed to control men in the name of God, but which had no good fruits to show in support of its arrogant assumptions.

NO phenomenon of the material world is more interesting or more inscrutable, apart from divine metaphysics, than the persistence of species, the maintenance of individuality. With the summer the familiar blossoms and leafage of each bulb and bush appear, and are greeted as the return of a well-known friend.

THOUGH written from a purely material viewpoint, there is nevertheless a valuable lesson in the statement by a noted English writer on political economy, that "the early steps of a student in almost every science are met by certain obstacles; if he succeeds in surmounting these obstacles, his future progress seems to be insured. " The student of Christian Science is no exception to this rule, but he has the advantage of the physical scientist in that he has taken as his fundamental premise God's omniscience, omnipresence, and omnipotence, as declared in the Scriptures; accordingly he goes "from strength to strength," for he knows that anything which is opposed to good, or which sets itself up as a rival power, is a usurper from the beginning and therefore can be overcome and cast out.